Good Morning Mr. President and Majority Leader Carroll, Secretary Markwell. Congratulations to each of you.

President Shaffer, thank you for your service here. God bless you and your family in your future. You and I did some good work together. Our best times where when we were able to share a few laughs. Some days those are at a premium here.

Welcome special friends, guests and families.

Please help me welcome my wife Lisa and our sons Austin and Alex. They have not been here together with me at the same time since 2007.

Welcome back colleagues and congrats to our new Senators. This is such a special day for all of us, for our families, our supporters, the volunteers who helped our campaigns. A lot of folks worked hard to make this day a reality.

It's really special when it's your first time to have your name included in the Senate roll call, you hear the results of each of your elections — they are now certified by Colorado's Secretary of State. You were probably bored listening to all the numbers, but very excited when you heard your own — Senator Marble, I thought you were going to burst out of your skin.

For our new members from the House, you need to get accustomed to a different set of rules but I can assure you, you will like the rules better here just ask any former House member.

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This is my second time to share my thoughts during opening day. This is a great honor, and it is one of the few times you get a chance to speak your mind here in the well and not watch a line form of folks wanting to debate you.

On New Year 's Day, I sent the governor a very short text. "Happy '13." His response was "Happiest of new years to you as well, it's gotta be better than '12." The words of that text kept ringing in my ears. As I planned for my remarks today, nothing seemed more relevant or more important than the events of last year and the people who were affected by them. As we move into the coming weeks of this session, it seems fitting to reflect a bit on their lives and their sacrifices to help us keep our work here in perspective.

To say 2012 was an interesting year would be an understatement. Our country has faced a lot of challenges in recent months, and we have as well right here in the Centennial State.

So let's start back at the end of the last regular session. April of last year, we were dealing with the tragic consequences of the Lower North Fork fire, the loss of lives, the loss of property, and to a significant degree for the victims — a loss of their faith in their own government, because as you all know, that was a man-made fire that got out of control — started by a government entity.

With just a couple weeks to go in that session, we responded quickly to a dire situation and provided a pathway to assist those affected by that fire. We all rolled up our sleeves and worked together — both parties, both houses, the governor and the attorney general. Did we solve all of the problems for those families affected by that fire? We did not, and frankly we could not. But the bills passed in the waning hours of that session provided a structure for redress and compensation that had not existed for those victims until then.

We also set up a commission to review what happened, and tasked them with identifying the causes of the wildfire; its impact on the affected communities; and determining measures to prevent the occurrence of similar events happening in prescribed fire management programs.

The commission has completed its work, and we now have 4 bills coming through the legislature based on our directives.

Those meetings were tough, the work was intensive — many of the commission members spent hundreds of hours meeting their responsibility. The emotional impact of the victims was ever present. (Scott Appel — Are you here? he lost more than his home and his family possessions — his wife Ann perished in the Lower north fork fire). Thank you for joining us today.

That was tough duty. This body was well represented on that commission by two of our colleagues. Let's take a moment to thank Senator Nicholson and the Commission's Chair, Senator Roberts.

Little did we know in May, as we continued to deal with the aftermath of that event, we would face one of the deadliest and costliest wild-fire seasons in our history. Over 4,000 wildland fires reported in 2012 ... 4,000 fires that destroyed around 650 structures, killed 6 civilians, burned nearly 390,000 acres and caused over $530 million in property losses. Coloradans lost homes, property, pets, irreplaceable family treasures, and most importantly — lives.

Add to our fires and the theater shootings in July, and I think we had more than our fair share of tragedies, and funerals.

2012 presented some tough times in Colorado to say the least. We experienced the worst of the worst from Mother Nature, and the absolute worst of the worst from the evil that one man can inflict on his fellow man.

The headlines and stories of these tragedies can hardly be counted because there are so many. The true costs of all these events cannot be measured, they are just simply too great.

After the horrible headlines of fires, came headlines of hope. After the stories of destruction and senseless deaths, came stories of triumph and inspiration. We learned that our neighbors, our friends and countless strangers became true heroes. People who set their own needs aside and often their own safety to help their fellow man. We saw folks come together and work together, performing acts of bravery and valor, often times to their own peril.

What these tragedies brought to light for me and I am sure for all of you was this. When our people, our neighbors, our friends, our first responders faced the worst of the worst of the worst from mother nature. and the worst of the worst from mankind, that's when we saw them at their very best.

We saw the very best from a heroic young man named J.D. TenNapel from Cedaredge, CO. When he saw the smoke coming towards his neighborhood, he hopped on his ATV and began alerting all of his neighbors about the fire moving towards them. He was injured with second-degree burns, but even as the ambulance was taking him away he mentioned one woman he had not reached, and firefighters were able to save her, despite the fact that her barn had already burned down.

We saw the best from Leonard Felix Jr. He ran his private aerial business during the Cedar ridge fire to help drop water from the air to slow down and stop the growth of a fire — he was credited by officials for getting that fire contained I understand he saw the smoke, then got a phone call from a neighbor asking for help. He deployed his plane and his helicopter. Please welcome him.

Waldo Canyon, right in my back yard. In Waldo Canyon, we saw the best from a volunteer team of Colorado Springs Utility employees who successfully restored power to a water storage tank that was surrounded itself by fire and burning homes. After being forced away 3 times from the inferno around them, on their fourth attempt they reached the tank and restored power so fire fighting could resume again in the upper portions of Mountain Shadows. Think of that, a tank full of water, surrounded by fire, with no electricity to run it. That fire team consisted of Mike Dornick, Rick Renteria, Dean Hancock, Chris Whitten. Thank them.

And finally, in Aurora, when we saw the absolute worst — from the very worst.

We saw the best from Aurora's police officers who arrived within 90 seconds of getting the first call. And many of those officers loaded wounded victims into their squad cars and drove them to the hospital instead of waiting for ambulances to arrive.

We saw the best from 36-year old Chris Lakota. He was in a different screening room and was told to evacuate. Instead, he ran into theater 9 and carried an injured woman out. He then administered first aid to her before the ambulances arrived.

We saw the best in 29-year old Air Force sergeant Jesse Childress who was killed when he jumped into the line of fire to save a fellow Air Force member. We saw the best of the best during the worst from the worst when 17-year old Stephanie Rodriguez — offered aid and assistance to an injured stranger, Cary Rottman, in the parking lot of the theater whose pleas for help were being ignored by people scrambling to drive away. She used her belt as a tourniquet for the man's leg and dragged him out of the parking lot with the assistance of nearby strangers so he wouldn't accidentally be run over by one of the fleeing cars. Stephanie is a senior at Gateway High School.

There are so many great stories about our amazing people, our heroes — many more than we have time to honor here this morning.

We were all affected by these events. The victims and the heroes are our constituents, our neighbors, our family members, our friends. Reflecting on their lives really should help us keep this place in perspective. We need to try to emulate the selfless characteristics of these heroes we serve.

I assure you, it sounds much easier today, than it will when we are dealing with some issues that will be debated right here at this podium into the wee hours of the night, of course after 6, 8, 10 hours of committee hearings.

We face significant challenges as policy makers and what we do here matters to the people in here and to millions across the state. The issues we debate and decide are complex and often times controversial. We need to keep focused on our shared values and find common goals. We have many to choose from.

Don't we all want Colorado's economy to grow stronger? Don't we all want families to be able to thrive and prosper? I think we do.

Don't we all want safe schools for our children, with graduation rates that give our kids an opportunity to succeed in college or other vocational pursuits? Of course we do.

We all want infrastructure that's safe, reliable and efficient.

I am sure we all want to keep Colorado's air, land and water clean and healthy for us to enjoy as we live, work and play here.

I could go on about higher-ed, energy, the Second Amendment, Medicaid, Pera, but I am fairly certain we will be discussing all of these and more over the coming months and the hundreds of impending bills we will carry.

We don't have to cover everything this morning. And besides, President Morse instructed me to be quick because he needs about 90 minutes.

I have shared this before, I believe that success here is not calculated merely by the bills we pass or the policies we change. It comes in great measure from building relationships with each other on both sides of the aisle. Because of those we already have, we were able to avoid the toxic effect of hyper-partisanship last year — with just a few exceptions. The civil demeanor of this chamber was even highlighted by the press. We should all be pleased by that. Mr. President, I am confident that under your leadership, both caucuses can build on this momentum, to share common values and find common goals.

As I conclude, let me share my opening words again. "There is certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself in acts of bravery and heroism." Doesn't it seem like that was written for Colorado last year? It was penned by Alexander Hamilton in 1775. It's so fitting. When we faced the worst of the worst, we were truly blessed by the best.

Let's agree to dedicate this session to all who have risen to meet the challenges of the unthinkable events of last year. Let our words and our actions honor the lives of those lost by matching the spirit of selflessness and sacrifice of Colorado's heroes.

Missy Franklin, Jenny Simpson, Adeline Gray and three other Colorado women could be big players at the 2016 Rio OlympicsWhen people ask Missy Franklin for her thoughts about the Summer Olympics that will begin a year from Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro, she hangs a warning label on her answer.